


La Belle de Jour

by Alex_Frey, SapphicSappho



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, First Meetings, dw the main focus of the story is catra and adora!! (the others made just some appearances)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24357361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_Frey/pseuds/Alex_Frey, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphicSappho/pseuds/SapphicSappho
Summary: Adora goes on a trip expecting to enjoy the beach. She had no idea that she would also get a crush.or: the Brazilian AU no one asked for(despite the setting and the title this fanfic is in English)
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 27
Kudos: 82





	La Belle de Jour

Adora observed the sea before stepping onto the beach’s reddish sand.

  
The waters were the most crystalline she had ever seen in her life, not that there had been many. Where she came from, near the Argentinian border in the very south of Brazil, the horizon only showed the grassland, and the waters there were icy as they ran through clear waterfalls and murky rivers.

  
In that moment, the infinite in front of her was the scintillant ocean of lights. No pictures or videos had prepared her for the sheer beauty of it. None of them captured the exact colors she was seeing, the scent emanating from the ocean towards her in a breeze as she walked towards the sea.

  
She could hear music coming from all around her. Adora tried to memorize the chorus of the most festive songs she had the pleasure of listening to so that she could later look them up. But as soon as another song started to play, she inevitably forgot the previous one.

  
The sea called to her, seducing her with the mirrored image of her own blue eyes. She denied it, because she herself wanted to observe, to sit down and allow the water to wet her feet.

  
Adora sat down with her legs stretched in front of her. She could feel droplets of water wetting her feet as the tiny waves crashed on the shore. The breeze that wafted around her, coming from where some boys were swimming, brought a nameless longing. An unknown desire and melancholy of not having been born in a place so charming, so poetic. A place where the heroes that she read about during literature classes fell in love, suffered, and died.

  
Adora questioned, in the end, if she would have been freer, or even felt more enchanted by things, if she had sailed in those waters during all the years she had already lived.

…

Catra wandered the streets, crossing alleys, running alongside children. She observed the markets and street vendors, then spied the unsuspecting tourists posing with their selfie sticks. Catra watched as they leaned against the walls which separated the sidewalk from the agitated ocean that struck the stone structure. She counted the seconds until one of the _gringos_ inevitably got drenched by a surprising wave, punishing them for being so vain to the point of not even noticing how angry the tide was with the wannabe models parading on the boardwalk that had stolen space from nature.

  
Lonnie and Catra had planned to meet up at the beach so that they could play keepie uppie with Rogelio and the other boys, who usually went to swim there during Sunday afternoons. It would take a while longer for her to reach the exact meeting spot. Catra would still need to walk some meters with the sun beating down on her from above, making the top of her head uncomfortably hot. She rethought the keepie uppie, but soon remembered that these days there was usually a soccer game when they gathered eight people – four for each team.

  
As she made her way into the beach, she felt the sand hitting the back of her legs with every step that she took. Catra quickly removed her flip flops, opting for carrying them instead. The sun seemed to shine even brighter here and she bitterly regretted not wearing a cap or sunglasses.

  
Putting her hand above her eyes as they adjusted to the brightness, Catra took a moment to observe her surroundings.

  
The beach seemed different, she thought, even before looking at it with precision. It was blue, which was uncommon. Usually, the ocean was green or light green. That new hue fit the beach well, Catra mused. It made it look more like the beaches that she saw on television, the ones from northern countries or from fancier beaches than this one. She did not mean to belittle it, but the Porto da Barra beach wasn’t exactly synonymous to glamour, nor was it the most sought-after beach by the tourists.

…

Adora turned towards the boardwalk that led the way to the beach. She felt dissonant from all of the other people around her; deep within her core, she did not find normalcy in her presence there alongside them. She saw herself as an intruder, spying on these individuals who were so spontaneous that they threw themselves into the sea, did pirouettes on the beach, even played with soccer balls made out of vinyl on the sand.

  
The passersby did not seem to pay her any mind. She wished that someone did; in her heart she desired to be noticed by the wonder that she watched. To be the highlighted part of a canvas and, prophetically, be the intruder who adores and falls in love with the painting.

  
Unbeknownst to Adora, someone casually watched her from a distance, without her suspecting that her lack of authenticity in this scenario actually stood out to someone.

…

In the midst of all the running and screaming children, and adults sun tanning, Catra spotted her.

A blonde girl sitting down on the sand in front of the ocean, contemplating it, seemingly unaware of everyone around her. She seemed out of place, strangely peaceful amongst everyone else.

Catra felt oddly drawn by her.

As she watched the girl observing her surroundings, Catra heard a familiar melody in the distance.

The stranger stretched her arms above her head. Catra observed how the girl’s muscles pulled with the action, how her hair swayed with the breeze.

She did not expect the blonde to look over her shoulder.

As she felt her face heat up, Catra finally recognized the song that was playing around them.

_La belle de jour._

How fitting.

...

From her peripheral vision, Adora saw a face turn in her direction. Without knowing if she should look back, she gazed at the mysterious person from the corner of her eyes, noticing that her observer was a girl. She was standing on the boardwalk, distant from the staircase, and jumped without being bothered by the impact on her knees. Even with the movement, the face went back to spying Adora and she realized that, indeed, she was being observed.

  
Adora dared to retaliate with the same impetuosity as she fully turned herself in the direction of the strange.

  
_She is different_ , was the first thought that crossed her mind. Adora noticed the short dishevelled hair, clearly groomed only by fingertips before leaving her house, the ends burnt by the sun. Her tawny, tanned skin reflected and translated the colors and heat of the sun, without any visible pink or red stains that formed blisters, like it happened to Adora. Her eyes were cat-like, with a feline shape, and…

  
She had to squint her eyes against the brightness to make sure that she had seen it correctly.

The girl’s eyes were, surprisingly, of different colors — one yellow and the other blue — making her look even more like a moggy.

Adora’s cheeks burnt at noticing a smile forming on the girl’s lips. The girl waved in her direction, and Adora immediately turned her face away.

She got up and walked in the direction of the sea, ready to end the tension between them, daring to take the first steps bolder than she would have liked, rushing, leaping over small waves and jumping when they hit her with more force.

Once she passed the barrier of waves, Adora swam fearlessly until she could no longer feel the sand beneath her feet. She allowed herself, for the first time in all of her life, to sink in the saline waters of the ocean.

The water cooled her face as it surrounded her. Adora felt calmer, away from everyone else. She saw herself distant from the real world, only to realize that that was not the case, that she was, in fact, in another place — one far away from how everything used to be. It was a new world that she found in her heart, a world wherein she was one with the ocean. There, under the water, in this new reality, Adora could feel her heartbeat slowing to a normal pace as her anxiety subsided.

  
Once her lungs started to burn from the lack of air, Adora begrudgingly broke the surface with a gasp as she inhaled as much oxygen as she could. She pushed her hair out of her face, ran the pads of her fingers across her eyes in a foolish attempt to dry them. After blinking a few times, Adora took a moment to marvel at the ocean. She noticed that here, farther down the sea, the water was cooler than closer to the shore. It was not as cold as the fresh waters from where she came from, instead it was simply refreshing enough to contrast with the heat outside.

  
Her legs kicked gently under her, keeping her afloat as her arms languidly moved in the water. Adora noticed how much easier it was to stay on the surface in the salty waters of an ocean. The water of the rivers and waterfalls she was used to felt much heavier in comparison, almost like they tried to weight her down. She threaded her fingers in it, ran them across the surface as she felt the small ripples tickle her palm. Adora inhaled the salty scent in the air as she closed her eyes, letting the other sensations take over her. She could hear children playing in the distance, parents loudly calling them over. The breeze around her brought with it the songs still faintly playing on the shore. Still, as much as she tried, she could not make out the words, just the rhythm. Adora gently moved her fingers on the surface to the beat of the songs. After a while, she started to feel the water on her face and hair begin to dry.

  
Taking a big breath, Adora allowed herself to once again dive underneath the surface. This time, she gingerly attempted to open her eyes. The salt water stung them, making her eyelids flutter. Determined to look under the water, Adora forced her eyes to stay open. Her eyebrows rose high in her face as she was faced with the immense beauty around her. She dared to tip her head back in order to look up, forgetting for a second that this would cause water to rush into her nose.

  
Adora resurfaced with a gasp as she coughed the water she inhaled, her hands coming up to her face to press against the sides of her nose. As soon as she regained her breath, Adora took a big gulp of air and dove once again, now using her fingers to clamp her nose shut. This time, she was able to look up.

  
The surface glittered with the rays of sunlight that hit its ripples, making the sky look distorted. It made it look surreal, almost as if she was in a dream-like state. Adora rose her free hand above her face, noticed how hazy it seemed underneath the water. Her legs kicked insistently in order to stay submerged, for she did not want to go back to reality just yet. She wanted to stay fully enveloped by water just a little while longer, away from all of her responsibilities, her worries. Here, underneath the water, it all felt so far away. No one was expecting anything from her, nor did she have to act in accordance to how others wanted her to. There were no tests, no catastrophes, no pain. It was just her and the water as it murmured sweet nothing into her ears, embraced her fully, gently caressed her hair, held her hand.

  
Adora felt her lungs start to burn and she internally cursed the fact that she could not breathe underwater. It felt like the real world was attempting to pull her far, far away from this peaceful state, making her unable to keep admiring the beauty around her.

  
Resigning to her fate, Adora rose her head out of the water.

  
When she broke the surface, Adora felt her wet hair clinging to her forehead, her cheeks, even her nose. She spluttered on a lock that found its way inside her mouth, spitting it out from between her lips as her hands tried to drive her hair away from her face.

  
Running her fingers through her hair to push it back, Adora’s thoughts drifted back to the stranger she spotted earlier at the beach. The girl seemed to be a local, or at the very least live in a place littered with beaches, unlike the south.

  
She wondered why she had such an intense reaction from simply locking eyes with that stranger.

  
As she observed the sea stretch in front of her all the way to the horizon, Adora mused about the girl. She was unlike anyone Adora had ever seen. Oddly enough, Adora felt a strong pull towards her. She wanted to get to know her, ask about her distinctive features. Was she another tourist, or had she had the pleasure of growing up in this place? Adora recalled her earlier musings and wondered if this girl had indeed grown up to be freer, to find beauty in everything.

  
She casually looked behind her once again, to make sure that the girl had not been a hallucination. Putting a hand over her eyes to shield it from the brightness, Adora looked across the beach. She saw people putting on tanning lotions, men loudly announcing the snacks and drinks that they were selling, children building sandcastles. Adora looked as far as her eyes could see across the sand.

  
But she could not find the girl from before.

  
“You couldn’t even wait for us, huh?”, Glimmer asked, startling Adora.

Adora had been so lost in her own thoughts that she had not noticed Glimmer and Bow making their way over.

“You want to give me a heart attack?!”, Adora exclaimed with a hand over her heart and eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Oh, come on, don’t be so dramatic!”, Glimmer rolled her eyes, “What were you doing? Anyone caught your eye?”, she asked as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“W-What? No!”

Adora knew she was blushing. She averted her gaze, but in her peripheral vision she noticed the smirk that took over Glimmer’s features. Adora was definitely not a good liar.

“Come on guys”, Bow interjected, “let’s do something fun together! It’s our first time here!”

Adora finally took a moment to look at her friends. She snorted as she noticed that Glimmer was straddling a bright pink water noodle, while Bow had his red one under his armpits and across his front.

“Why did you two bring these?”

Glimmer opened her mouth to interject, but Bow beat her to it.

“For this!”

Bow aimed one end of the noodle at Adora’s face, and blew on the other one with his mouth, successfully spraying her face with water. Glimmer laughed loudly at the way Adora’s features scrunched up.

“Oh, that is _so_ not fair!”, Adora exclaimed even as she laughed.

This time, Glimmer was the one to spray her with water. Adora quickly struck back, throwing water at the two of them with her hands. The three began to have a water fight as they each tried their best to splash the others.

...

Catra spotted Lonnie at the beach, alongside their friends. Lonnie turned in her direction and despite her irritation from having to search for her in the middle of the beach's agglomeration, Catra waved at her.

Belatedly, she noticed that Lonnie did not see her as she simply turned back around. Catra immediately dropped her arm and walked in the direction of the group, not noticing that the girl she was watching earlier had disappeared in the sea.

Catra quickly tried to blend in with the rest of the beachgoers. She was embarrassed and hoped that no one had seen her wave being ignored.

Her mind wandered back to the stranger. She wished to talk to the her, to ask where she came from, why she chose to visit this particular beach when there were so many better ones.

In her distraction, Catra cursed as she nearly tripped on a child’s toy. She huffed as her eyebrows drew closer together in irritation.

Casting her musings about the stranger away, Catra quickened her pace. She was getting closer to where her friends were.

  
There were families huddled close together under their beach tents, eating snacks and chatting excitedly. She could hear young children whining in the distance as their parents scolded them, surely for doing something stupid. Catra snorted out a laughter, _I bet the little shits had it coming_ , she thought. There were slightly older children rolling around on the sand, successfully getting completely covered in it, just like a schnitzel.

  
After a while, Catra finally reached her friends.

“Took you long enough!”, Lonnie called out.

“Oh, shut up.”, Catra rolled her eyes, aware that she was late but refusing to admit it.

The whole team was already there, but to Catra’s dismay they only had seven people — one short of being able to have a soccer match. Part of her wished that she had chosen to simply stay in bed instead, though another part welcomed the distraction of at least playing uppie keepie.

  
“So, are we going to play or not?”, Catra crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

  
“Ay, ay captain!”, Lonnie replied sarcastically.

As soon as everyone gathered in a circle they started to play. They kicked and head butted the ball around, trying to break their own record.

  
Kyle, once again, ruined their streak.

  
Some of her friends started to argue, but Catra simply rolled her eyes. She felt her temperature rise, both from the exertion of the game as well as from the sun beating down on her. Uncomfortably warm and wanting to quench her thirst, Catra reached for her water bottle, unscrewing the cap and taking large gulps from it. She allowed her eyes to wander towards the sea, wishing to find the girl from earlier.

  
Before her eyes could find who she was looking for, Lonnie announced that they would start a new round of uppie keepie.

  
Catra screwed her bottle firmly before she blindly threw it on the sand behind her.

  
As the game progressed, Catra’s thoughts strayed. She wondered if the girl from earlier was still at the beach, or if maybe she had noticed that this was not, in fact, a tourist attraction, and simply left. Catra quickly scrapped that thought — such action seemed to be out of character for the girl. Not that she _knew_ the stranger, but from what she had seen she believed that this _gringa_ was different from the others. Catra wondered where she was from, _probably Europe? Or maybe the United States?_

  
She once again looked out to the sea, and, this time, Catra spotted her. The girl seemed to be having a water fight with two other friends. _I wonder who they are_ , she asked herself.  
In her distraction Catra nearly missed the ball rushing towards her. She headbutted it, hard, in Lonnie’s direction. _This is not the time to be thinking about some strangers_ , she internally chastised herself.

  
Throughout the game, Catra found herself repeatedly looking at the girl. Their eyes met a handful of times, but they averted their gazes just as quickly. Catra kicked the ball harder in frustration at feeling so flustered because of a damn _gringa_. Still, she could not help herself. Her eyes kept going back to the stranger, so far away, yet still recognizable. She wondered if the girl was her age, if she attended a fancy university, if she had seen snow. Catra herself had never seen it, only in movies and in photos. She shivered just at the thought of how cold it must feel like to touch it.

  
Though she bets it would be perfect for making a _caipirinha_. She would just have to bring some _cachaça_ , throw the snow directly in it—

  
“Okay, okay, time out!”, Lonnie proclaimed, bringing Catra out of her thoughts.

  
Part of the group groaned as they flopped down on the sand, while others quickly made their way to the beach vendors for some drinks and snacks.

  
Catra stretched her arms over her head, feeling her muscles pull as she groaned. Looking out into the ocean, she noticed that the girl from earlier was now alone.

  
Making up her mind, Catra decided to go talk to the mysterious _gringa_. She spotted a big orca shaped floatie laying on the sand, likely forgotten by someone. Catra took it in one hand and looked around her until she found a wood paddle laying by some canoes on the sand.

  
As she strode down the sand towards the ocean, Catra felt her heart start to race. She was unsure if it was because she was going to talk to the girl, or if it was because she was about to go into the water.

  
Catra felt a shiver run down her spine as she gingerly stepped into the water, but she was not about to back down now. She quickly straddled the floatie, trying her best to keep all of her body parts from touching the water, and used the paddle to make her way closer to the blonde.

  
As she got closer, she noticed that the girl was floating on her back with her eyes closed. Catra took the moment to truly look at her — her hair floating above her head, her delicate features. She observed the soft slope of the blonde’s nose, her smooth looking lips, the serene look on her face. Now that she had gotten a good look at the girl, Catra thought that she looked even more out of place at this beach.

  
The girl opened her eyes and Catra nearly fell off the floatie as the other girl lost her balance and started to flail her arms, splashing water everywhere.

...

“Hey”, Adora said as she regained her composure.

“Hey”, the other girl sheepishly replied. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Oh, it’s okay!” Adora exclaimed as she felt herself blush.

As the awkward silence filled the air, Adora recognized the girl. It was the same one from earlier, the one she had seen before diving into the water.

She wasn’t a mirage after all.

From up close, Adora noticed the freckles on her face and was able to take a closer look at her mismatched eyes.

“Oh, wow”, Adora sighed.

“Yes?”, The girl furrowed her eyebrows.

Adora notices that she said that out loud. Even her ears were heating up now. She could not believe that she was blushing _again_.

“Ah, sorry! Your eyes— I mean”, Adora gestured as her legs furiously kicked under the water, “I had never seen eyes like that. I’ve seen even purple eyes but never mismatched ones like that! I mean, sure, I’ve seen people with heterochromia before, but usually one of the eyes has two colors mixed, you know? Never two eyes with such bright distinctive colors…”

She realized that she was rambling. Adora bit her lower lip as she averted her gaze sheepishly. The other girl smirked and raised an amused eyebrow.

“I’m Adora, by the way.”

“Catra.”

Adora's mind was instantly bombarded with images and songs by Mr. Catra. She felt bad for the girl. Who in their sane mind would ever name their kid _that_? Was the girl old enough that her parents were unaware of Mr. Catra?

“So, Adora”, Catra drawled her name in a way that made Adora’s spine shiver pleasantly, “I noticed you watching my friends and I playing uppie keepie…”, Adora blushed at the knowledge that she was caught staring.

“Y-yes!”, She stammered before clearing her throat, “I really enjoy that game.”

“You like soccer?”, Catra wondered aloud, her eyes already shining.

“Like it?”, Adora chuckled, “I love it!”

They talked some more about soccer and uppie keepie strategies until Catra heard Lonnie calling out to her from the sand.

“Well… I should go”, she gestured behind her shoulder, “My friends are about to start the second round.”

“Oh.”

Adora hoped that Catra could not hear the disappointment in her voice.

A moment passed.

“Do you… want to join us?”, Catra asked, unsure.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude…”

“Nonsense. We are one short for a soccer game anyways.”

“Okay then.”

Adora felt her smile broaden across her face.

…

As the sun began to lower in the sky, the afternoon turned duller. The light posts illuminated the beach’s sand with its artificial light, contrasting with the dark blue of the water as it got lost in the immensity of the ocean and turned completely raven in the distance. Dark and dense clouds came from the sea’s opposite direction, ascending over the city. They shrouded the moon, only allowing its luminous contour to shine through the layers of fog that occulted it.

  
Bow and Glimmer sat down by the sea shore to watch the sunset and remained side by side, even after the sun disappeared in the horizon as the night fully established itself. The rest of the group who accompanied them also remained unmoving, comforted by the fact that they simply needed to cross the street to reach the place where they would spend the night. Because of that reassurance, Adora continued to play with the new group.

  
Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio, Catra and some others who were less talkative, and thus less remarkable, huddled as close as possible to the illuminated spots by the light posts. They were nearly breaking their own record, when they were interrupted by Angella calling out from the boardwalk:

  
“Glimmer, Bow, Adora! It’s getting late and it’s getting cold outside!”

  
Everyone else thought it was actually quite warm outside, but no one dared to voice their opinion.

Adora pushed her hair back out of her face and sheepishly smiled at Catra.

“Well… I guess I really must go.”

“You know,” Catra leaned closer as she dropped her voice, “it’s really not cold.”

Adora bit down on her lower lip to stifle a laughter.

“Oh, I know. Still, I really should go…”

Despite her words, Adora remained in the same spot. They both stared at each other, wishing that that moment could last longer.

“Adora, come on! If we go without you she will have my head!”, Glimmer shouted.

Catra rolled her eyes at the girl’s over the top drama. In the distance, Adora could hear Bow talking with Glimmer, surely trying to distract her in order to afford Adora with enough

time to properly say goodbye to her new friends.

“I really enjoyed you- I mean, playing with all of you…”

Catra smirked and raised an eyebrow at Adora’s Freudian slip. She wondered how the girl, who she found out was _not_ a _gringa_ , kept turning pink so often. Catra would not say it out loud, but she thought it was actually quite cute. She allowed the silence to stretch, enjoying seeing how Adora was visibly struggling to find her words.

“Will I see you again tomorrow?”, Adora finally asked.

“Who knows…”, Catra shrugged, “Why don’t you come to the beach again and find out?”, she said from behind cracked lips and a clear smile.

Her tanned skin shined as if it was illuminated by a fire lampion, so golden and distant like Bahia’s lights. The landscape painted itself in the dusk with dense clouds prohibiting the stars from piercing them. In the far away horizon, in the borderless sea, the reflection of the stars in the form of bright white dots shined more in the waters than their original counterparts in the sky, hidden from view.

  
In Catra’s eyes, however, the broken light poles with their yellow lamps reflected on the black iris, and, for the first time, Adora saw the stars of Salvador.

**Author's Note:**

> We really hope you enjoyed this! Feel free to ask us about the countless inside jokes and dumb scenes we created that were scrapped :')  
> This is our first time publishing a fic with a plot, so if you liked it please consider commenting below! It truly means a lot to us.
> 
> P.S.: Here's a little glossary for some terms we used in this fanfic :)
> 
> Gringa/Gringos: foreigner(s), usually European or North American  
> Cachaça: a strong alcoholic beverage  
> Capirinha: a typical Brazilian drink made from cachaça, lemon, sugar, and ice


End file.
